Harley Benton ST-Modern HSS BK

I had the need for a little beater guitar to be able to do as many sounds/genres as possible - so, naturally, a HSS Strat!

Recently I've had so many problems with much more expensive guitars having really bad QC, so I wasn't sure what to expect from this, for so little money. But when this came and I opened the box, and I looked over every inch, I couldn't find a single thing wrong with it. It's baffling, how does Harley Benton do it? The one thing I didn't like was the look of the laurel fretboard at first, but that changed when I did a couple small mods:

1. The string trees aren't good, and they would catch the strings while tuning or using the trem, resulting in that annoying "clicking" noise!
I replaced them with GOTOH RG15/RG30 string trees for 5 Euro, and the issue was gone! HIGHLY suggested mod, just buy them with your guitar!
(Make sure to drill larger holes, 2mm seemed to be just right.)

2. I replaced the saddle screws because they were sticking out too long, digging into my flesh when palm muting - this is also very cheap to do!

3. Not really a mod but I applied lemon oil to the fretboard before putting fresh strings on, and that transformed it. It wasn't ugly - just DRY!

Highly recommended! I doubt there's a better beginner guitar (with a trem) on the market!